as a new father i'm more than pleased to welcome new members in the club: parenthood, an exclusive group that wants everyone to be a member. and on that note, poets bob marcacci and derek motion are expecting their own 1st child in a matter of days even hrs.

i remember well that time almost 3 years ago when nicholas was due for his appearance. nicholas was a week overdue, he wasn't quite done i guess, still wanted to cook for a while longer. so anna's dr scheduled the following saturday for an induction of labor.

it was all so planned and clinical, tho by my standards and anna's it was quite a wild, exhausting, thrilling ride. we were soon-to-be parents and we didn't know what to expect. i remember when the nurse handed me nicholas for the 1st time. by then he was a couple of hrs old. his hair was still flame-red. and i thought, i'm supposed to take him home?

you see you come in to the hospital as a couple, you leave, quite suddenly tho not unexpectedly, with a child, and you become a family. quite a switch in thinking.

at any rate, birthing techniques and hospital stays are much different, cleaner i suppose, certainly healthier, than when they were when i was born in the 1960s. back then you could smoke in yr room. back then when the mother-to-be went into labor, the dr and nurses would ask for her to put down that wine glass, stub out the cigarette and push!

congratulations to bob and derek and their partners. it is a wild, lovely, thrilling, exhausting journey you've just begun.